Crashing? Have you tried this? Memory is a volatile item. Even at the slightest break, could make memory faulty. It can cause your system to run slow, fine, or appear normal. It could even make it look like Microsoft is at fault. For those who are having massive problems, well just run this memtest program overnight (while you are sleeping) and look at the results in the morning. If you see any error messages, time to get return or replace the memory. http://www.memtest86.com/
Also check in the BIOS that its running at the correct speed. I found out that THIS was the source of all my game crashes! I have 256mb of pc2100(266mhz) installed and the ram was set to this in the BIOS (3:4) which resulted in it being detected as 2100(266mhz) but not running correctly, so i tried dropping back to the fail safe defaults of 1:1. My ram is now only detected as 1600 (200mhz) but there are NO MORE CRASHES so im going to leave it alone. The best setting to try is by SPD. Just be aware that some ram isnt detected properly and if not you need to set it manually.
Video Cards and new drivers Some of the latest Video drivers may not work with some of the new cards, for instance.... I bought a new Geforce FX 5700LE card, installed it, then installed the newest drivers, then i bought a week later SIMS 2, when trying to start Sims 2, it would cause my computer to do a complete restart, took me 2 days , with calls to EA, and Nvidia, to figure out why it was only happening on this game, EA recommmended returning the game, to re-installing it, Card support recommended returning card, but before i did that i decided to reinstall Drivers that came with the Card.... guess what?..... works fine now, perhaps a future patch, or expansion, from EA will support newer Video Card driver updates
It may not have been EA's problem. Some of the Nvidia drivers (specifically the 61 76 and 61 77) were problematic for many of their cards. The later drivers worked but not those two (which were mainly for the new 6800 which had come out at about the same time as the 61 76.) Cards like the 5200 and some of the stripped down models (which the 5700LE is) were having the most problems with those two drivers.
When I play the sims Season it crashes after 10 minutes or so can someone tell step to step how to change the speed of the bios, or somethig like that? and on a other computer i've installed season and i have red walls, and when it's snowing outside it turns out red too, this happend to me when i had the sims pets but i've unistalled it but i miss it and now i have bussines and nightlife. do i have to upgrade my video card o somethig?? please help cause i want to play season and pets again i missed my dogs. can someone reply to my 2 questions?? thx
I can't help you with the bios, but the red walls is a graphics issue. Make sure your graphics card is compatible here's the req's for the seasons expansion: here
Mimi, it's really hard to help figure out your problem as you haven't provided the specs for your computer. Without that, we can't help you troubleshoot, but can only guess at the possible causes. Please see the FAQ to learn how to post your specs.
Mimi, Does the screen go completely black and the only way to get back to the desktop is to turn off the PC manually? If so, it could be a graphics card problem: I had exactly a similar problem and after ploughing through technical support forums and thinking it through I came to the conclusion that my CPU was overheating because by graphics card was non-T&L and I only just had the minimum processing power... Try downloading AIDA32 or some other program that monitors CPU temperature and check it every now and then while you play. If it rises and then crashes out, it might be that. Hope I've helped, Tigerseye
